Closed Head Injuries: A Lifetime of Symptoms

There are many times when I am muscle testing patients and the issues and symptoms they are experiencing trace back to a closed head injury earlier in their life. The truth is that this type of injury, whether diagnosed as a concussion or not, can happen from sports, from a fall, from a blow to the head or from any injury such as in a car accident. Often the initial symptoms will include dizziness, headache, nausea, pain but since they often go away, we think nothing more about it.

But when we look at the structure of the head, it becomes apparent that any blow or injury has a lasting effect when not treated to resolution. In the past the bones of the skull were the main focus, but as time went on it became apparent that brain injury needed to be the focus. Injury to the soft tissue of the head including the brain, the pituitary gland, the pineal gland, the meninges, the sinuses and even the spinal cord itself can develop slowly over time due to shearing tension, scar tissue, twisting/torquing and inflammation. The effects depend on the actual area of soft tissue that is affected. Often the injury to the head can create almost a circling effect, just like the old cartoons when the character hit his head, because of the fluid that bathes the brain and spinal cord within the meninges.

Injury to the pineal gland can create long-term sleep disruption and even narcolepsy, while pituitary injury can create menstrual cycle disruption, reproductive challenges, growth disruption and obesity. Even a “shaking” effect to the brain can be the beginning of mental illness including schizophrenia, seizure disorders and depression. Cranial nerves control swallowing, facial sensation/movement, digestive action and our sensory perception. Since these types of symptoms can develop much later and slowly increase over time, rarely do people relate them to a closed head injury that may have taken place years before.

Getting an MRI or scan of the brain is rarely helpful because even the healthiest of people will have scars, lesions and irregularities in their head’s soft tissue. Whenever we trace symptoms back to the head it is vital to treat the head as though the patient has just experienced an injury. Many times this is the missing solution to chronic symptoms that won’t resolve with typical protocols. Remedies for the hypothalamus, the cranial nerves, the pituitary, the pineal gland and especially for brain trauma can truly make a difference over time, no matter how long it has been since the original injury.